Shujaa
by Lavender Springwood
Summary: Africa, 65 million years ago. There is not much left. There's no food, little water... and Shujaa has no choice but to journey to Africa all by herself, in the most merciless time period the world had ever known. The story of how Pride Rock began. The Lion King's 20th Anniversary Gift.
1. Author's Note

**Author's Note:_  
_**

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A prehistoric Pride Rock. Wouldn't that be interesting?

The idea first hit me about four years ago when I saw another FanFiction in _The Lion King_'s archive that had set Pride Rock two-hundred years into the future. So I thought, "if you can set Pride Rock way into the future, why not set it way back into the past?"

It took off from there. However, I was not able to relocate the FanFiction to list it here as my source of inspiration. But whoever you are, I want to thank you.

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**Trailers:  
**[Two trailers for _Shujaa_ are currently in development. The links will eventually be listed here].

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**"You added _what_ to The Lion King?"**

Dinosaurs.

Yes, you read that right.

I know! I'm a maniacal little writer! Muahaha! And I spared no expense!

When I got the idea for _Shujaa_, I saw this as the perfect excuse to do it. I think everyone has liked dinosaurs at some point in their life. There is a reason why movies like _Jurassic Park_ are so popular. They were real, living creatures that really existed.

However, this could go entirely the other way. Some people may really hate the idea. The ones who are shaking their heads going, "No. Just no..." (Or, my personal favorite, the ones who don't Log In on purpose, and leave me a nasty, cruel Review, and just rant about how "stupid" or "absurd" of an idea this is in said message because they are shaking in their boots to say it to my face. Because they know to give such Reviews in person are wrong. I've already Moderated a few of the like).

That's fine. We all have our opinions. However, do not come after me with a Review/PM about how you have "a problem" with me wanting to do something new and different. Therefore, I will use FanFiction's age old adage, _"If you don't like it, then don't read it."_ Simple as that. Exit out, and move on to the next FanFic.

But if you're game for the idea, and if you've ever liked dinosaurs—then you may like the story.

Or love it. [Grins].

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**Disclaimer:  
**_(For actual paleontologists, paleobotanists, and everyone else that cares about scientific accuracy)._

**There are going to be scientific inaccuracies in this story that I am well aware of.**

Not everything in this story is going to be 100% right according to records. However, since this is a _FanFiction story_, and not a lecture for the University of Cambridge, I'm hoping that the vast majority of this website's readers will forgive me for that. I'm going to have to sacrifice some accuracy for the sake of entertainment.

But I assure you, an entire year's worth of time, effort, research, and late nights watching documentaries went into making _Shujaa_. A large portion of _Shujaa_'s remaining material is still scientifically correct. Believe me, I know my dino stuff. I researched everything that I could get my hands on for this story. Do not discourse me.

Read that last sentence again.

Do not try to "teach me" things that I already know. I know that X happened. I know that X didn't appear at the same time as X. I know that X is blah blah blah, etcetera etcetera etcetera.

This is your fair warning. I'm normally a nice person. But when push comes to shove, I become an entirely different person with people who choose to be lazy and/or ignorant, since I was _more_ than fair with you. Please don't make me do that.

I appreciate your desire to help clear things up, especially when it comes to scholastic education. However, if you Review/PM me about this, I will only redirect you back to this **Disclaimer**. From this moment forward by continuing to read on, you are making a mutual agreement with me that it's not going to be my fault that you chose not to read my **Disclaimer **thoroughly.

If we still don't have an understanding after this subheading, I will **ignore** PMs and **delete** Reviews. That is all.

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**There Will Be an Index**

I don't expect you to know all the names of the dinosaurs I'm going to put in the story. Therefore, I am going to put an **Index **at the bottom of each Chapter that will give a rundown of all the different plants, animals, dinosaurs, and other prehistoric life that I used for that specific Chapter.

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I think that about covers it. Am I forgetting anything?  
Oh, right. Shujaa is pronounced "_shoo-JUH_," and means _"hero,"_ or _"brave"_ in Kiswahili.  
I hope you have as much fun reading this story as I did writing it. Enjoy the show.

_—Lavender Springwood_


	2. Prologue

**Prologue**

_Yucatán Peninsula, __Central America_  
_65,000,000 years ago_  
_6:02 PM_

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Life.

The greatest gift of all. From the moment we arrive, our first instinct is universally the same: to live—and to stay living.

No matter the species, big or small, or how advanced or simple the life form, they all know what to do. This instinct guides us and protects us throughout our journey in life. We do everything in our power to safeguard this gift, all the way down to the hour of our death. One creature's will to live may be more powerful than another's. It may determine who lives, and who dies in the grand scheme of things.

However, when our time comes to die, we know that it's not the end of everything. The world will continue on without us. Because we know that it has always held one, fundamental truth... and will always hold that one, fundamental truth: it goes on.

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When our planet was new, and when the life it nursed was just beginning to understand this concept, something in the way that the wind was blowing off the coast of the ocean was strange, but no one could conclude what is was.

Everything proceeded as normal. The trees sang their lush, relaxing song as they swayed together in the wind. The pteranadons called back and forth to each other across long distances, and the sun was setting over the ocean, just as it always had since earth's beginning. The creatures of the earth decided to ignore their premonitions. They resumed their affairs to eat, or to take special precautions from being eaten.

The last ounce of twilight hung over the ocean. The sky flared up with peach and amber, doused in the sweetest pink. The ocean below it was soot violet, and smelled like damp sea life.

A leptoceratops came to the shallow end of the waters. It stumbled over rocks to get to the sea. The waves sloshed up on shore, passing through underneath his legs, then came back out to the ocean.

The beast grunted and lopped up the water. It was tired, and wanted to get one more drink of water before it went home.

As daylight began to slip away, the wind began to gather through the island. The trees swayed against the sky, creaking their branches. A warm breeze passed through the coast.

The leptoceratops pulled its head up, noticing the slight change in environment. He listened closely, trying to determine whether it really was the wind—or if it was a predator lurking in the foliage. It might have been watching him drink from behind.

The wind died away, and the trees surrounding the coastline flustered to a stop. The leptoceratops waited a moment, water dribbling from his chin. When he heard nothing else move, he went back down to the water to drink.

From up above the bluff, a lizard stuck onto a palm tree. It tilted its eyes toward the direction of the sun, observing a second light, twinkling its way toward earth.

The light glinted in the water, above the leptoceratops' reflection. He saw this and stopped drinking, watching the water more intently. It was a white, docile item, glittering in the sky. The dinosaur lifted its head.

A twinkling dot soared down from the atmosphere, leaving a trail of fiery pink crystals behind it. It was almost pretty. The leptoceratops was transfixed on it, bedazzled. The sparkling star streamed down into the ocean, tumbling and barreling, and then flickered out silently above the sea.

Then another one just like it, came down towards the horizon. Then another one... and another.

The leptoceratops hopped gleefully, watching the white things fall from the sky. They descended solemnly. The light balls then faded over the horizon, and winked out silently together. Nothing else followed after that.

The leptoceratops stared out to sea, the vast and empty ocean looking back at him. The dark water rippled underneath the horizon. The leptoceratops had hoped for more lights. Then he gazed up, and bleated joyfully at the sight of another one coming.

This one glared out from behind the clouds. It was significantly larger than the other ones. It sailed down from atmosphere, plunging towards the ocean like a large ember from above. The leptoceratops observed eagerly and bounced up and down.

The ball of light touched the lip of the horizon, and the sky began to glow. Everything suddenly blinked a bright white—like a quick flash of lightning—and the entire sky gave out, flooding the whole world in darkness. And all the forces of cosmic wonder were set free.

There was a quiet explosion in the distance. It was slow and magnificent, like the eruption of a volcano. A silent cloud of fire rose up into the sky, billowing up and up, like a deathly blossom in the sky. There was a faint rumble across the sea, like the first roll of thunder that signaled an approaching storm.

A hazy ring from the explosion spread away, and it began to soar across the water. It drew nearer and nearer to shore.

The murmuring thunder grew into a rumbling convulsion, then grew louder and louder until it had finally reached the shore with an ear-cracking smash that blew everything into oblivion. The leptoceratops shrieked, everything in his body suddenly disintegrating.

The lizard in the palm tree flew off. He landed somewhere in the bushes—dead. The heart-busting explosion rattled the jungle, shaking the ground, whipping plants and trees backward, and frying their sprigs to cinders. Birds fell to the ground like stones. Every living thing—big or small—stopped what they were doing, and paused to look out to the horizon at what was looming in the distance. The sonic boom echoed like myriads of lightning cracks all throughout the tropics. The central explosion in the distance took off and flew across the ocean—starving to reign terror.

Then the fire came.

It was overwhelming with an interstellar rage that the world had never seen before. The fire rolled onto shore and consumed the coastline, obliterating trees in half with one blow, chunks of them flailing through the air, and then crashing to the ground. Some trunks were blown up from their roots and soared up into the air, slamming down on other trees that had survived the blow, crushing the life out of them. Nests and homes were destroyed. Then destroyed again with fire. The entire rainforest became dark. Once a lush and thriving paradise, immediately becoming a black graveyard of fallen life.

The raging hurricane roared on, crashing into forests, charring the wood, and bursting them into ashes, carrying them away into a dark mist. A black cloud of soot rolled behind it, baking everything in searing toxins—asphyxiating the breath out of those who had somehow managed to survive every other composition of death.

Everything green was vaporized. All the ferns, grass, bushes—gone, as though their existence to the very planet had become irrelevant. The air had suddenly become unbearable to use, and became so hot that it roasted and dissolved the lungs of any survivors, if they had not already fallen victim to the toxic, black cloud.

The explosion devoured everything that was ever delivered onto the earth. Every rock, every crevice, every animal. Everything that had breath and a beating heart had their skin ripped up from their bodies, exploded into dust, and carried away with the fire, their ashes countless as the grains of sand on the seashore. The wild fire was free to destroy anything, and everything that had the audacity to stand in its way.

A herd of parasaurolophus grazing near a lake looked up at the sky. The fiery massacre breezed through, articles whizzing and smashing into everything. The rainforest was wide awake, but its inhabitants were unsure on what to do. They ultimately decided to make a run for it, unable to tell what was happening.

Pellets of shooting fire landed to and fro, crashing into trees, and spitting into lakes. Chunks of debris slammed into the ground, hitting the occasional scurrying animal. This prompted other creatures to run faster. They dashed for their homes, hoping for a safe haven, hoping for all the destruction to please stop—only to be slammed into the ground seconds later by asteroid debris. Hope was futile.

The fire had conquered the land. It was as if the sun had come to earth.

Animals that were fortunate enough to escape everything scurried underground. They watched the asteroid impact roar inland from burrows with their families.

It came like a thirsty animal with one, solitary mission... to annihilate every living thing on earth.

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**I bet you're glad you weren't there!**  
**Chapter 1 may be up soon. But I plan on updating this story only after _A Murderer's_ Miracle is done. I may do both at the same time... who knows. Either way, a Review would be awesome.**  
***Note: no dinosaurs were harmed in the making of this fic.**

**Index:**

**Pteranadon: **a genus of Cretaceous pterosaurs having a backwardly directed bony crest on the skull and a wingspan of about 25 feet.

**Leptoceratops:** a genus of ceratopsian dinosaurs from the late Cretaceous period, and share the same genus as _Triceratops_. Leptoceratops was around 2 meters long, and could have weighed anywhere between 68 to 200 kilograms.

**Parasaurolophus:** a genus of ornithopod dinosaur that lived during the Late Cretaceous period. It was an herbivore that walked both as a biped and a quadruped. Parasaurolophus was a hadrosaurid, a genus is known for its large, elaborate cranial crest, which at its largest forms a long curved tube projecting upwards and back from the skull.


End file.
